Today was a whirlwind trip to the hospital for a whole slew of tests. WE made it!!!!
Our first appt was in Peds Onc. for labs and port access - we were 5 min late due to weather beyond our control and that made us almost late for appt 2 - EchoCardiogram in the Children's Hospital, thankfully that test went on time and was fairly quick which made us on time for Appt 3 - Pulmonary Function Test - that was interesting and at one point the machine wouldn't work for the test, so we moved to another machine and it wouldn't work either, then they had to call someone else in to troubleshoot the machines. After about a 40 minute wait they got both machines working and were able to complete the 4th breathing test. Just in time to run downstairs for her CT scan. WE were done by 1pm. I think that was the fastest we've ever been through the hospital for all her tests. We weren't sure we'd make it home before 5 but we did! We were on the way to my Aunt's to pick up the other 2 kids and were just behind a big accident (Dodge Stratus' don't win in fights with Hummers) and got delayed. Thank you a ton Auntie J for taking care of the kiddos today!!!! Sure made it a much easier day.
We will have results of all of Alyssa's medical stuff on Sept 28th. when we meet with her Peds Onc. Dr.
Showing posts with label Medical Testing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Medical Testing. Show all posts
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Alyssa Update.
I know we haven't had one of these in a while (and probably won't until after Sept 28th) but here is an Alyssa Medical Update: We have follow up tests which include a CT Scan, An Echo CardioGram, Labs and a Pulmonary Function test as well as a Port Flush scheduled for Sept 17th. We have the Follow up appt with Dr. Winter, her Ped. Oncologist on Sept 28th. I am asking for everyone to pray for Alyssa's tests to all come out clean. That is the only thing I REALLY want/need for my birthday so please pray the L*RD will provide! Thanks to everyone who continues to keep Miss Alyssa on their prayer list. WE still feel that our L*Rd is holding us up through all of this.
Thank you to all of the folks who have donated to the LLS Light the Night walk including S. Traeger, S & N. Hopfauf, the D. Family and more! All of you are awesome and I cannot tell you how much we appreciate your support on Alyssa's behalf.
Thank you to all of the folks who have donated to the LLS Light the Night walk including S. Traeger, S & N. Hopfauf, the D. Family and more! All of you are awesome and I cannot tell you how much we appreciate your support on Alyssa's behalf.
Monday, August 10, 2009
New Medical Updates for Alyssa
Well, after a month of rest (bliss, wonderful hospital-less bliss) we are back in for follow ups and
port flush tomorrow. SIGH! It will be fine I am sure but again, it means a whole day lost at the hospital in Albuquerque. I hate wasting my whole day in Albuquerque (gee Dee tell me how you really feel!) but we know these things are necessary. For those folks who asked if Alyssa needed more scans etc. the answer is YES. She will. The Radiation specialist thought that we wouldn't for "6 months or so" which I thought was ODD but when I called Pediatric Oncology about getting Alyssa's port flushed they didn't even know that she had finished Radiation and they said
that indeed Dr. Winter would still want her to do more scans soon. I figured as much!
but for tomorrow it's just Radiation follow up and of course a port flush.
So much fun. On a few other notes: We are about caught up with Nik for school, Alyssa is plugging away, and Suzy is ahead. The house and goat pens still need work but I'm pluggin away at that and of course all the yarn/fiber/gourd projects for upcoming shows etc. If you want to see what is up there go to http://FiberPhanatic.blogspot.com or click on the link to the right.
port flush tomorrow. SIGH! It will be fine I am sure but again, it means a whole day lost at the hospital in Albuquerque. I hate wasting my whole day in Albuquerque (gee Dee tell me how you really feel!) but we know these things are necessary. For those folks who asked if Alyssa needed more scans etc. the answer is YES. She will. The Radiation specialist thought that we wouldn't for "6 months or so" which I thought was ODD but when I called Pediatric Oncology about getting Alyssa's port flushed they didn't even know that she had finished Radiation and they said
that indeed Dr. Winter would still want her to do more scans soon. I figured as much!
but for tomorrow it's just Radiation follow up and of course a port flush.
So much fun. On a few other notes: We are about caught up with Nik for school, Alyssa is plugging away, and Suzy is ahead. The house and goat pens still need work but I'm pluggin away at that and of course all the yarn/fiber/gourd projects for upcoming shows etc. If you want to see what is up there go to http://FiberPhanatic.blogspot.com or click on the link to the right.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Blog in the Mud
AS most of you who follow my blog have noticed, this blog has come to a screeching halt.
The bloggy Alphabet Challenge was derailed by the medical train this week. On tuesday we went into the Urgent Care center to check on a swollen neck my 14yo was complaining about.
No biggie - we thought rather naively. Well, we get in the office and the peds Doc says - "Hmm, I don't know what it is but the Peds ENT specialist is here today so can we have them check it out (Dr. Martin and a resident Dr. Ingle's who is AWESOME). So an hour later we get seen by Dr.s Ingles and Martin. They asked a bunch of Q.'s and of coursed listened to vitals, checked the swelling and said they thought it might be a Brachial Cleft Cyst - very benign - no biggie, just a nuisence......but we want you to get a CT Scan with Contrast so we can get a closer look. Now, at this point we had been at UNMH for around 2 1/2 hours with 3 kids who aren't really happy being there. They weren't sure how long we'd be there so I called the posse in - DADDY to the rescue who thankfully was let out of class early and took the kids (minus the 14 yo) home and fed the animals for us....whew! Alyssa braved the IV and got the CT Scan and they scheduled a F/U on Thursday at 9am. Well, we had no reason to believe that Thurs was going to be a crazy, scary, emotional, up and down day for us but we again NAIVELY went into the appt (with all 3 kids in tow and a few homeschool books to pass the time in the waiting room) thinking we'd be out of there in an hour or so and could hit Costco and the used book store. NOPE - wrong.
They hit us with "well, the swelling is a more solid mass than we suspected and she has a few other swollen Lymphnodes in her upper chest region - we want her to do a bunch more tests and here's what we are looking for : Door 1 - no big deal - still could be the BCC, Door 2 - TB, Door 3 - Lymphoma - the big scary C word, or Door 4 - other things we haven't thought of yet.......) Yep, I cried. And Aly the brave was great for a while. Momma called the posse again. Dad came to hold hands and offer strength (mom is a HUGE BLUBBERING BASKETCASE) and Grandma came to get the kids. And we proceed to go from test to test. First was the lab for blood tests and FNA (Biopsy). The Pathologist whose name I can't even pronounce was awesome. She talked to Aly at length - encouraging her to a career in the medical field - especially Pathology and Medical Examiner. She even let Aly look at one of the slides with her cells on it so she could identify both the Lymph cells and the red blood cells (who says a day at the hospital is a waste of a good homeschooling day!!!) after she braved 3 passes of the needle without a local. Yep - she didn't even flinch!!!!
Well, that was out first stop - FNA and blood tests, next it is off to the XRay dept for a full chest Xray. Again, the tech was incredible - really sweet lady and she let us see both Xrays on the computer screen afterwards - do you have any idea how incredible the human body is? Aly wants her Xray to put on the front of a shirt and the tech was so encouraging Aly to learn all she could about the Human Body before she even got near college as it will put her ahead in the knowlege dept - whether she goes into ME or Forensic Anthropology.
By this point we were both tired and emotionally drained but we had to do a TB test still which they said was a quick poke and we could leave - it was about Noon. We had now been at UNMH since 8:45am. We go to peds and they triage her and then say - we are closed until 1 - see you in an hour. UGH - I ask if she can eat anything so off we go to Subway for some sustenance. Back up to Peds an hour later. Well, we were visit by the same Dr. twice giving us the lowdown on TB tests - what to expect, look for etc. and then we waited and waited and waited and waited. FINALLY, a very bored mom goes to find what the hold up is. - I think they forgot about us.
They come in, stick her and send us on our merry way at 3:00 or so.
I can't say that the day was a waste - we got the most AWESOME science day at a real lab but I cannot even begin to tell you the emotional drain we were all under this week. I did not have time to even think about or take pics for U is for Udder. HMPH. I'll get to it when I get to it. For now, I'm catching up on life, trying to field phone calls from all my AWESOME family and friends who love my family and I - couldn't live without you all, catch up on laundry, house cleaning and yes, blogging and emails - trying to ignore what is behind Door #3 (or 4 for that matter) as I don't care for big scare monsters who lurk trying to eat your kids......(okay - DRamatic but that is how I feel) and fight off the fear, anger, frustration, disbelief, grief and the dysfunction of the brain I'm experiencing.....But as a dear friend reminded me this am - Fear is not of the LORD....I will trust in HIM and leave my precious daughter who is being so brave and incredible thru this trial - going thru being used as a human pincusion and subjected to more tests in 2 days than she's had in school in 9 years in HIS capable hands. I do have to say - the Educational aspects I think made it easier on her - being able to see what they were looking at makes things a little less scary. It's not out there in the realm of the unknown zone....but she really is brave and I've gotten tons of hugs from her - (she isn't my snuggle bug ya know). I know she is going to make it through all this insanity no matter what door is open to us. So for those of you waiting on pins and needles for U is for Udder - sorry - I'll get to it. But not right now......
The bloggy Alphabet Challenge was derailed by the medical train this week. On tuesday we went into the Urgent Care center to check on a swollen neck my 14yo was complaining about.
No biggie - we thought rather naively. Well, we get in the office and the peds Doc says - "Hmm, I don't know what it is but the Peds ENT specialist is here today so can we have them check it out (Dr. Martin and a resident Dr. Ingle's who is AWESOME). So an hour later we get seen by Dr.s Ingles and Martin. They asked a bunch of Q.'s and of coursed listened to vitals, checked the swelling and said they thought it might be a Brachial Cleft Cyst - very benign - no biggie, just a nuisence......but we want you to get a CT Scan with Contrast so we can get a closer look. Now, at this point we had been at UNMH for around 2 1/2 hours with 3 kids who aren't really happy being there. They weren't sure how long we'd be there so I called the posse in - DADDY to the rescue who thankfully was let out of class early and took the kids (minus the 14 yo) home and fed the animals for us....whew! Alyssa braved the IV and got the CT Scan and they scheduled a F/U on Thursday at 9am. Well, we had no reason to believe that Thurs was going to be a crazy, scary, emotional, up and down day for us but we again NAIVELY went into the appt (with all 3 kids in tow and a few homeschool books to pass the time in the waiting room) thinking we'd be out of there in an hour or so and could hit Costco and the used book store. NOPE - wrong.
They hit us with "well, the swelling is a more solid mass than we suspected and she has a few other swollen Lymphnodes in her upper chest region - we want her to do a bunch more tests and here's what we are looking for : Door 1 - no big deal - still could be the BCC, Door 2 - TB, Door 3 - Lymphoma - the big scary C word, or Door 4 - other things we haven't thought of yet.......) Yep, I cried. And Aly the brave was great for a while. Momma called the posse again. Dad came to hold hands and offer strength (mom is a HUGE BLUBBERING BASKETCASE) and Grandma came to get the kids. And we proceed to go from test to test. First was the lab for blood tests and FNA (Biopsy). The Pathologist whose name I can't even pronounce was awesome. She talked to Aly at length - encouraging her to a career in the medical field - especially Pathology and Medical Examiner. She even let Aly look at one of the slides with her cells on it so she could identify both the Lymph cells and the red blood cells (who says a day at the hospital is a waste of a good homeschooling day!!!) after she braved 3 passes of the needle without a local. Yep - she didn't even flinch!!!!
Well, that was out first stop - FNA and blood tests, next it is off to the XRay dept for a full chest Xray. Again, the tech was incredible - really sweet lady and she let us see both Xrays on the computer screen afterwards - do you have any idea how incredible the human body is? Aly wants her Xray to put on the front of a shirt and the tech was so encouraging Aly to learn all she could about the Human Body before she even got near college as it will put her ahead in the knowlege dept - whether she goes into ME or Forensic Anthropology.
By this point we were both tired and emotionally drained but we had to do a TB test still which they said was a quick poke and we could leave - it was about Noon. We had now been at UNMH since 8:45am. We go to peds and they triage her and then say - we are closed until 1 - see you in an hour. UGH - I ask if she can eat anything so off we go to Subway for some sustenance. Back up to Peds an hour later. Well, we were visit by the same Dr. twice giving us the lowdown on TB tests - what to expect, look for etc. and then we waited and waited and waited and waited. FINALLY, a very bored mom goes to find what the hold up is. - I think they forgot about us.
They come in, stick her and send us on our merry way at 3:00 or so.
I can't say that the day was a waste - we got the most AWESOME science day at a real lab but I cannot even begin to tell you the emotional drain we were all under this week. I did not have time to even think about or take pics for U is for Udder. HMPH. I'll get to it when I get to it. For now, I'm catching up on life, trying to field phone calls from all my AWESOME family and friends who love my family and I - couldn't live without you all, catch up on laundry, house cleaning and yes, blogging and emails - trying to ignore what is behind Door #3 (or 4 for that matter) as I don't care for big scare monsters who lurk trying to eat your kids......(okay - DRamatic but that is how I feel) and fight off the fear, anger, frustration, disbelief, grief and the dysfunction of the brain I'm experiencing.....But as a dear friend reminded me this am - Fear is not of the LORD....I will trust in HIM and leave my precious daughter who is being so brave and incredible thru this trial - going thru being used as a human pincusion and subjected to more tests in 2 days than she's had in school in 9 years in HIS capable hands. I do have to say - the Educational aspects I think made it easier on her - being able to see what they were looking at makes things a little less scary. It's not out there in the realm of the unknown zone....but she really is brave and I've gotten tons of hugs from her - (she isn't my snuggle bug ya know). I know she is going to make it through all this insanity no matter what door is open to us. So for those of you waiting on pins and needles for U is for Udder - sorry - I'll get to it. But not right now......
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
T is for TESTING
Sorry, again no photograph for this post.
T is for TESTING - something we do pretty regularly in our herd. We love our goats and they take care of us so we want to make sure they are healthy. We began our testing several years ago with TB/Brucellosis. We don't test often for it but we do test periodically as we want to keep tabs on their health. So far we have had no positive tests on our goats - Thank God!
We also began from the beginning testing for CAE - a debilitating disease for goats - it stands for Caprine Arthritic Encephalitis. Again - none of our goats have tested positive for this.
This past year we added Johnnes disease and are planning on testing for CL (Caseous Lymphodenitis) - a disease that attacks the lymph nodes and is marked by abcesses - this nasty one is one that once you have it on your property you cannot get rid of.
It is expensive to test your goats but we know what leaves our herd is healthy and we usually do not buy goats unless they are tested or are from a tested herd. Also, when folks bring their goats here we require testing for at least CAE.
Last year we decided to take the plunge and do our own tests so I learned to draw blood and we began sending it in to WADDL (Washington Animal Disease D??? Laboratory) for the tests.
Not as expensive as having the vet do it but still costly. We believe that since these goats feed our family with good, raw milk and products it is worth the effort to make sure that these girls and boy are healthy and can provide us with quality babies and food!
T is for TESTING - something we do pretty regularly in our herd. We love our goats and they take care of us so we want to make sure they are healthy. We began our testing several years ago with TB/Brucellosis. We don't test often for it but we do test periodically as we want to keep tabs on their health. So far we have had no positive tests on our goats - Thank God!
We also began from the beginning testing for CAE - a debilitating disease for goats - it stands for Caprine Arthritic Encephalitis. Again - none of our goats have tested positive for this.
This past year we added Johnnes disease and are planning on testing for CL (Caseous Lymphodenitis) - a disease that attacks the lymph nodes and is marked by abcesses - this nasty one is one that once you have it on your property you cannot get rid of.
It is expensive to test your goats but we know what leaves our herd is healthy and we usually do not buy goats unless they are tested or are from a tested herd. Also, when folks bring their goats here we require testing for at least CAE.
Last year we decided to take the plunge and do our own tests so I learned to draw blood and we began sending it in to WADDL (Washington Animal Disease D??? Laboratory) for the tests.
Not as expensive as having the vet do it but still costly. We believe that since these goats feed our family with good, raw milk and products it is worth the effort to make sure that these girls and boy are healthy and can provide us with quality babies and food!
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